Posted on: 13th November 2024

The three new positions have been funded by a grant from the Cathedral Music Trust through their Cathedral Music Support Programme. Ahead of ‘Celebration Sunday’ this weekend, when we will officially give thanks for this funding, we spoke to Carole, the alto Lay Clerk, to find out more about her.

My background in music is partly the traditional route: after school, I went to the Conservatoire in Glasgow. Unfortunately whilst there I got glandular fever, so I left after a year and went to University to read Religious Studies. Since then, I’ve done a variety of things but music’s always been a huge strand in my life.

I kept going with singing and worked as a freelance musician. I also trained as a music therapist later on in life but got back into singing in a big way in 2015, when I worked as a Lay Clerk at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. I would describe that as being the most fun job I ever had! I just absolutely loved it. I didn’t grow up with Cathedral music – although my Dad is a church organist – so this style of music wasn’t desperately familiar to me.

After that role I found myself in a job in the NHS working as a hospital chaplain, which was a big change, but it actually made sense of a whole other strand of interest.

I had been a healthcare chaplain in the NHS for about six years, and then I saw this job, and it really spoke to me. I felt like I wanted to step out of the work I was doing – I was counselling NHS staff, and I’d done that for about three years – and felt the need to bring music back into my life again.

What did the music therapy involve?

It was very much using music to connect with children with profound and multiple learning disabilities and with people with dementia; it was very effective with them. The work fitted well with my singing work in the cathedral in Edinburgh and it was a very varied working life, but the lure of a ‘proper’ job in the NHS eventually got the better of me! But here I am now, stepping back into music again; taking a bit of a risk, but it feels like the right thing. I’ve got a strong sense that this is the job that I want to do, and this is where I want to do it, and that I want to work with this particular music team.

As we talk, you’re about half-way through your second week with us. How have those first services been for you?

I’ve had a really fantastic welcome from everybody here. The first few services have been great and the choir makes a really good sound. It’s quite a changing scene because sometimes the adult singers are different at different services, so I’m still working out who’s who, and who are the regulars, but I especially like seeing how the young people and the children respond. And really that’s hugely important to me: that we keep this kind of music alive, and that it doesn’t belong to any one group – it belongs to everybody.

This Sunday is Celebration Sunday is when we acknowledge the funding received for your role, and others. In terms of Cathedral Music, why is it so important to have Lay Clerks?

It carries on a really fantastic tradition, which I think the UK excels at. It goes way back to the music of  William Byrd and even before, but you’ve also got exciting contemporary sacred music being written as well.

Having the three lay Clerks that are funded by the Cathedral Music Trust is like having a bit of stiffening and a bit of extra help, and importantly, some singers who are committed to being at every service. I know myself, from singing in different choral ensembles, that when you’re around singers who are really on their game, you raise your game as well. I just think it’s great that the Cathedral Music Trust made the funding available. I feel that, especially when we get our tenor and our bass in as well, we’ll  be able to do things fairly quickly and add to the great team that already exists and I think for everybody’s music that’ll be a helpful thing. Hopefully I’m not over-promising and under- delivering!

You’re based in Dundee. For those who have never been there, what’s your chosen highlight for those who might visit?

I think it’s the Tay Bridge. Just climb up Dundee Law on a good day, or even when the mist’s rolling in: the Firth of Tay is beautiful. It costs nothing to look at, but it’s stunning, you can see over to the hills of Fife.

And Dundee Cake is pretty good too!

Finally, what message would you like to give to the congregation?

When I looked at all the information about the Lay Clerk post, the Dean’s introduction really stood out, where he said they wanted a people person as well as a performance person. I’m so looking forward to meeting the community here at the Cathedral. If you’re making great music, then that’s good for the performers, but it’s also good for those that are listening as well. Hopefully, it adds to the worship and helps answer the big questions in life sometimes, where words fail. You’ll see me weeping in a hymn occasionally!

I’ll be very happy to meet the congregation – this role is not about being up there at the front in the choir stalls, ‘on show’ and distant. It’s all about connection:  connecting with the others in the choir; connecting with the wider congregation and the city, and connecting with God. It’s an act of worship.

You can hear Carole singing at our choral services on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Please visit our website what’s on page for full details of all our services.